Thursday, January 14, 2010

Homemade Spaghetti

Making homemade spaghetti has been something I have wanted to try for a while. I remember my grandmother making dough for chicken noodles. She would mix the flour and eggs, roll the dough into a log, then slice the log onto noodles. The noodles were cooked in a creamy chicken sauce. I was fascinated by the process...mainly because of being able to get messy in the dough.

The recipe I used was two farm fresh eggs (a gift from the McDonald family - very nice!) with about 1 1/4 cups flour. That's it. Start a pan of water to boil right away, as this is so easy and fast, the strands will be done before the water boils.

Don't the eggs look grand? They are!


Mix the eggs into a gooey mess.

Mix the flour in slowly about 1/3 cup at at time, until it is just this side of sticky.

Roll out on a floured surface much thinner than what I did. Who knew the noodles would expand?!?

Now roll up the dough into a log shape using a pastry scraper, which I do not have, but will soon. It helps get the sticky dough off the surface.

Slice into thin spiral rolls, and immediately straighten out. You may hang them or just collect them on the cutting board if you are using them right away.

I used a coat hanger hung from my kitchen lamp to hang them. Boy were they fat and uneven!

Some I left on the cutting board as the water had just started to boil.

Boil for three to five minutes, depending how thin you were able to make your strands. My fat noodles took five. I didn't realize they would get so much bigger while being cooked! They were more like my grandmother's noodles and less like spaghetti strands.


The secret to loads of flavor is to mix 1 t of garlic powder and 1/2 t of onion powder with 1/4 cup melted butter and add to the cooked spaghetti. Toss gently. If you like more flavoring, just add more.


Add your sauce and a bit of Parmesan cheese and you are set. Fresh basil would have been nice as well. Worker Bee went nuts! It was good.


Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Meyer Lemon Preserved in Salt





After slicing the lemons into quarters, you place them into the jar, adding Kosher salt to each layer.  Cover them with lemon juice and shake a couple times a day for two weeks.  Be sure to not refrigerate during this time.  Then place in the refrigerator and use for the next six months.  You may rinse the lemons before use if the recipe does not call for salt.  Good with many Mediterranean recipes, fish and desserts.  Hope this works!  You can see the juice just after I shook the jars. 


Sunday, January 10, 2010

Meyer Lemon Marmalade




Finding a wonderful list from the LA Times titled 100 Things to do with a Meyer Lemon was fun. I decided making Meyer Lemon Marmalade would be great for consumption on these horribly frigid days. I found a recipe from the now defunct Gourmet Magazine. You may find it here.

Friday, January 8, 2010

Meyer Lemons

One of the dilemmas I have with buying local is that some things are just not grown in our zone 5 area. I don't have a Meyer Lemon tree...yet, so I decided that instead of buying a couple lemons each week at the grocery store, I would buy a box from a small organic farmer. I found the the Birch-Hill Organics farm in Atascadero, California. Richard Burchiel, aka the "organic farmer" wrote the nicest note. They will accommodate special requests with regard to size and ripeness if they can. They were quite prompt with shipping and communication. You can just imagine the smell when I opened up this box of sunshine!

Click on the picture to read the letter from Richard, organic farmer.


I used a recipe for preserved lemons from The Mediterranean Pantry recipe book. I then had a lot of the rinds leftover. I candied them using a simple syrup and organic sugar.







They may last up to 3 weeks...yeah, right! I am also going to make a Lemon Marmalade.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

From the Farm to the Table

The book I am reading now is called From the Farm to the Table, by Gary Holthaus.  The perspective is from all kinds of farmers.  I recommend it.  I haven't figured out how to post a picture of the book cover.  I will keep trying.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Birdhouse Gourd Drying





The birdhouse gourds have been out in the weather since coming off the vines in August. I am not sure what they are supposed to look like as they dry out over the winter, so I guess they are "cooking" just fine. Interesting that the skunk and squirrels leave them completely alone.

Monday, December 28, 2009

Free Stuff


Gotta love FreeCycle!